Rewrite in Apache does not work anymore

Installed Apache on Suse Linux 10. Configured httpd.conf including a rewrite rule in a virtual host.

No configuration errors, but it did not work at all! After a while I discovered that the mod-rewrite module had been installed, but not enabled with this version of Apache (2.2.x). This URL gives a pretty good hand-out how to do this. Because I’m not sure this link will last for ever, a copy of (part of) the text in it with a small addition of my side:

This is a simple rule that redirects all urls with the format user/something to the script /user.php with the something as parameter user. The IfModule prevents Apache errors when mod_rewrite should disappear.

If this doesn’t work – there is another pitfall of the default SuSE Apache installation: you’re not allowed to create custom .htaccess files! So – lets enable them